By: Elissa McDavid and Nick Toomey, Co-Deans
Elissa- Con planning:
Con planning is planning blindly. I mean this in the sense of- we don’t access to the site until the Friday of and we don’t have access to all of the youth and adults to try out workshops, worships, touch groups, essentially being able to run-through the con. There is a certain point in everyone- even for people so detailed orientated like Anne-Marie that you simply have to have faith and “make shit up” (as Anne-Marie would say). We as a con planning team had forces working for and against us. All of us were on YES team, which means most of us had prior experience planning or in leadership in general. But we didn’t have our first YES team meeting until mid August and that same meeting was also our first Con planning meeting, which in all honesty we didn’t get a lot of planning done. However that being said, through a ridiculous amount of emails, google docs and hours upon hours of skyping with Nick and Anne-Marie, we made it work.
I can’t tell you how much the con community means to me, and that’s why YES team decided to plan it and do this theme. That is why I was dean, because I wanted to make sure the youth are able to experience the experiences that I have had. We only had to hope that the things that we planned and did would create experiences and have an impact on the community.
Nick- Friday:
Upon arriving at the camp early, I had a moment to myself to look across the camp and see where many memories had been made from the prior years. I felt as though ghosts of people of con past were floating around as reality and my memory worked their hardest to blend together. As set up began and the crucial steps to get registration ready for many youth on their way, I began to realize how much it really took to have all of the needed Friday night con necessities ready, something that was just that way when I arrived as a regular youth. Seeing the Yes Team get their staff shirts on and their smiles growing really brought to heart and prepared me to what was coming. As youth began to flood in, familiar faces would appear and I’d get welcomed with huge hugs and screaming voices. At the same time though, the new youth were all faces I had never seen and would be leading the whole weekend. Come orientation, both Elissa and I had excitement running through our veins it seemed. Opening up yelling “Welcome to Fall Con 2011!” really set the tone for how we felt about being co deans. We had all the enthusiasm in the world and it showed as we got through the usually most boring part of con with what seemed like enthusiasm and surprise at the end when we tried out something new, the con sorting hat. Logan did an awesome job with that and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of leaders to get through main orientation.
Elissa- Saturday:
We were now in fully into the weekend. After the main orientation, we crashed. We had been running around the site since 1 pm. I remember foggily rising out from my cocoon of warmth from my sleeping bag and heading in the rain to breakfast. The morning seemed to pass fairly quickly- through touch groups and morning workshops, it seemed soon we needed to be prepping for main workshop. Before main workshop, Nick and I (along with others) felt that our community was not fully understanding the con culture. The workshop and this con’s goal was to learn our past- our roots, to grow and nurture our con tree, and empower the community. We have had a past of drugs, sex, and youth and churches getting hurt. We don’t want to go back, we want to move forward. Our branches of the tree, are our con values. We are a loving, kind, radically inclusive, empowered, open community. And when we are not, we apologise and forgive, because we know con is not perfect. Con had changed and is always changing, hopefully for the better, just like our faith, we are a living tradition. The community has the power. We might have youth and adult leaders, but really the ones who uphold the community is not one single person, but every single person. We had speakers from all generations from con speak about their experiences. The end result was a beautiful tree, our beautiful con tree. From 1900’s, to our present, to our future and beyond to spreading our love and kindness everywhere, not just isolated in con.
After the workshop, it was as if the air dramatically shifted. Our community got it, they got the culture. I have immense amount of faith in the future. Con isn’t just about this one weekend, but about the future weekends. Main workshop was just one of the many amazing things that happened. The touch groups, the worships, all of the workshops, spirit corps, etc. The no-talent show was great, as always. That night’s worship really touched me, before I had been feeling a little disconnected from the community, and from the worship and beyond that feeling completely disappeared. Later that night I was called into a CAC, all I have to say about it, is that I’m so proud of everyone involved and the discussion and work that was done. It was a good thing for our community and also an extremely powerful experience. I didn’t drop into bed until around 4:40 and soon enough 3 hours later, I needed to rise and begin to close our weekend.
Nick -Sunday:
Elissa- Con planning:
Con planning is planning blindly. I mean this in the sense of- we don’t access to the site until the Friday of and we don’t have access to all of the youth and adults to try out workshops, worships, touch groups, essentially being able to run-through the con. There is a certain point in everyone- even for people so detailed orientated like Anne-Marie that you simply have to have faith and “make shit up” (as Anne-Marie would say). We as a con planning team had forces working for and against us. All of us were on YES team, which means most of us had prior experience planning or in leadership in general. But we didn’t have our first YES team meeting until mid August and that same meeting was also our first Con planning meeting, which in all honesty we didn’t get a lot of planning done. However that being said, through a ridiculous amount of emails, google docs and hours upon hours of skyping with Nick and Anne-Marie, we made it work.
I can’t tell you how much the con community means to me, and that’s why YES team decided to plan it and do this theme. That is why I was dean, because I wanted to make sure the youth are able to experience the experiences that I have had. We only had to hope that the things that we planned and did would create experiences and have an impact on the community.
Nick- Friday:
Upon arriving at the camp early, I had a moment to myself to look across the camp and see where many memories had been made from the prior years. I felt as though ghosts of people of con past were floating around as reality and my memory worked their hardest to blend together. As set up began and the crucial steps to get registration ready for many youth on their way, I began to realize how much it really took to have all of the needed Friday night con necessities ready, something that was just that way when I arrived as a regular youth. Seeing the Yes Team get their staff shirts on and their smiles growing really brought to heart and prepared me to what was coming. As youth began to flood in, familiar faces would appear and I’d get welcomed with huge hugs and screaming voices. At the same time though, the new youth were all faces I had never seen and would be leading the whole weekend. Come orientation, both Elissa and I had excitement running through our veins it seemed. Opening up yelling “Welcome to Fall Con 2011!” really set the tone for how we felt about being co deans. We had all the enthusiasm in the world and it showed as we got through the usually most boring part of con with what seemed like enthusiasm and surprise at the end when we tried out something new, the con sorting hat. Logan did an awesome job with that and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of leaders to get through main orientation.
Elissa- Saturday:
We were now in fully into the weekend. After the main orientation, we crashed. We had been running around the site since 1 pm. I remember foggily rising out from my cocoon of warmth from my sleeping bag and heading in the rain to breakfast. The morning seemed to pass fairly quickly- through touch groups and morning workshops, it seemed soon we needed to be prepping for main workshop. Before main workshop, Nick and I (along with others) felt that our community was not fully understanding the con culture. The workshop and this con’s goal was to learn our past- our roots, to grow and nurture our con tree, and empower the community. We have had a past of drugs, sex, and youth and churches getting hurt. We don’t want to go back, we want to move forward. Our branches of the tree, are our con values. We are a loving, kind, radically inclusive, empowered, open community. And when we are not, we apologise and forgive, because we know con is not perfect. Con had changed and is always changing, hopefully for the better, just like our faith, we are a living tradition. The community has the power. We might have youth and adult leaders, but really the ones who uphold the community is not one single person, but every single person. We had speakers from all generations from con speak about their experiences. The end result was a beautiful tree, our beautiful con tree. From 1900’s, to our present, to our future and beyond to spreading our love and kindness everywhere, not just isolated in con.
After the workshop, it was as if the air dramatically shifted. Our community got it, they got the culture. I have immense amount of faith in the future. Con isn’t just about this one weekend, but about the future weekends. Main workshop was just one of the many amazing things that happened. The touch groups, the worships, all of the workshops, spirit corps, etc. The no-talent show was great, as always. That night’s worship really touched me, before I had been feeling a little disconnected from the community, and from the worship and beyond that feeling completely disappeared. Later that night I was called into a CAC, all I have to say about it, is that I’m so proud of everyone involved and the discussion and work that was done. It was a good thing for our community and also an extremely powerful experience. I didn’t drop into bed until around 4:40 and soon enough 3 hours later, I needed to rise and begin to close our weekend.
Nick -Sunday:
When I opened my eyes Sunday, I felt like I had just closed them from the night before. After a long night staying up to watch the community while the CAC proceeded and getting the dance started the night before, I was exhausted. After getting my day started, I wandered to breakfast, got something to eat, and went on to announce the fact a CAC had happened with Elissa. This moment was kind of bitter sweet. Having had an awesome con so far, the announcing of a CAC wasn’t something the community wanted to hear, yet knowing it had happened proved that the new community was willing to uphold and take responsibility for covenant, rules, and culture. When that was all said and done, I finally went to a whole touch group meeting, which I had missed mainly for the purposes of getting a little rest during the prior days. I enjoyed getting a little more one on one with some of the youth and was happy to see I was welcomed in despite my absences. The day finished up with the car wash and wonderful worship that we had after, and I got to see what felt like a mirror image in many ways, of the final moments of one of the most important cons of my life, as youth hugged, wrote, screamed, cried a little, and enjoyed the presence of each-other for one last little bit. I watched and waved as the cars went away, and I smiled as I saw the last youth leave, until I remembered I had to clean up the rest of their mess then.
Elissa - Closing Thoughts
Nick and I both want to extend our thanks to Anne-Marie, the rest of the amazing con planning team and the adults and youth who took up any leadership throughout the con, to the sponsors for donating their weekend, and finally to our beloved community.
Remember to plant your own tree and let our faith, our love, our chalices shine, just like they do at con. We are the past, the present, and the future for our cons, our religion, for our world.
As Bill and Barrie said at main workshop: “You're not back into the "real world". You never left it. Carry on what you have learned this weekend everywhere you go, and the two "worlds" will not seem that different anymore”.
This article is from CONtext
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